My first impressions:
I only tested inventor and private investigator so far, and seeing as there is an entire thread that basically covers the idea of inventor I won't get into it much. You go to the scrapyard, or destroy things for 25 simoleons, or buy the scrap, or rummage, or have a robot smash stuff. Everything you do on the bench costs scrap, and you mostly do the invent actions to randomly learn a new invention, having found only a tad few mentioned in the invention thread that "do anything". You mostly look at it like its painting, in my opinion, but you make lots of really cheap things instead of one big one.
The private eye, he basically relies on logic as a skill and reminds me of a mix between the police officer and the journalist. He can perform stakeouts on locations where he goes and hides there for a little while, and after you can go home and write a report on it. Likewise, you can check a computer or wait for a call at home, and you get little missions as have been mentioned about the firefighter. Most of which are just to go chat with one person then another. However, sometimes you have to perform special actions at certain locations, like searching the garbage, the mail, or using a magnifying glass, etc. Notably, there are generally two ways to go about some of the missions. Sometimes if someone won't give you information, you can beat it out of them, or you could bribe them, or you could just be friendly. Also, when trying to get evidence at house, I had the option of just breaking in, instead of being invited. You get items along the way, like the magnifying glass, the fingerprint kit, a door, some weird cork board, but its all just for show, none had function outside of the occasional mission, although I had only reached rank 7.
As per robots, they do eat scrap, they also sleep, need to socialize, and everything else the same as normal sims. The only exception is that they do not bathe. The bar is permanently maxed. However, some of the bars didn't seem to go down too fast, but it may have been my imagination. The one I received from the lifetime reward came with 7 in handiness and 5 in logic as well. And besides the ability to smash things which is basically from what I have seen a free equivalent to "demolish" that inventors do, that is about it.
Around town, I've noticed that sometimes I there was a protest going on at city hall (it would be there when I clicked to become self employed) that I could join, and it didn't show up like an event like "Grill-a-thon", but I never actually had the chance yet to go join it. Also, am I the only person that can't find skill books at the library? I've looked all around and no free skill books to read to increase your skills. Just the fluff books. However, maybe it is just me. Someone also mentioned the consignment shop being closed, which yes, it seems some places aren't always open if the owner or no employee is working, namely that shop. Reminds me as well, I can't seem to notice NEGATIVE job performance. When I reject missions, or go a few days without completing the one I am on, it didn't seem to suffer on my job experience bar, no matter how lazy I was being as PI. Not sure why to bother taking unpaid leave (an option on your phone now) if that is the case.
Whew this is getting gigantic, but I did want to mention there are a few new interactions really minor and mostly mean, but namely I took the new ecofriendly trait and wow I've never been so bombarded with moodlets and new interactions. It is like taking evil, many of your actions change in name only. However, you can talk to people about ecofriendly topics, like composting. Also, you take showers really fast, it is even called quick shower, and you get a two hour moodlet for "conserving water" that you quickly lose as you use a sink or toilet. Basically, you will get bad moodlets for using things like a car (unless multiple people are in it, including a taxi because the driver apparently doesn't count) or a cheap washing machine or dryer. And you get good moodlets for things like riding a bike or apparently gardening. Most last 2-4 hours and range from +25-25.
Edit: Oops forgot, about laundry, don't fret too much about it. The items needed are really cheap. I bought a washer, a clothesline, and a hamper, and barely dented my normal house build. Also, in a house of two, I maybe did laundry every eight or so days. That was after I overfilled the hamper. I never even noticed any like "dirty" moodlets anywhere, it was only positive moodlets for when I did do the laundry. You can drag clothes yourself to the hamper, just like plates to the trash. It is also worth mentioning laundry happens, FAST. You pick up an instant bag of clothes from the hamper, drop it in the machine. Come back whenever later, take them out instantly and instantly plop them in a dryer or on the line in my case. Finally, whenever I felt like it I got them off the line. There is no tedious cleaning bar that takes time to fill or anything, just a quick animation.
